CSR at a cost to customer service?

Last month it was Markham Vaughan Gillingham. This month it's Churston Heard. One would be forgiven for thinking that the days of the independent retail surveying practice were numbered. But is that really the case?

Ten years ago, when the Trafford centre opened on a derelict industrial site wedged between the M60 and the Manchester Ship Canal, industry reaction focused on the Vegas-style architecture - all classical statues and preserved palm trees - and was in danger of ignoring the fact that John Whittaker's Peel Holdings had in fact created a phenomenal retail machine.

? ALLOA

ING REAL ESTATE has recruited two development managers for the UK. MICHAEL WISEMAN has joined from Oak Holdings, where he was a development surveyor working on a number of mixed-use schemes. And TIM ARMSTEAD joins from Npower where he was a development surveyor responsible for managing and disposal of a variety of sites throughout the UK.

At the impressive age of 94, you would expect Saul Magrill to be long retired. But the great grandfather loves his job so much that he has no plans to leave.

Fundraising has closed on an initiative to raise cash for air ambulance charities with the news that the target has been reached, raising more than £20,000. Spearheading the challenge was Karl Taylor, Workman Retail's manager at the Ryemarket shopping centre in Stourbridge.

No matter what the weather this summer, visitors to East Kilbride shopping centre will be able to enjoy all the fun of the seaside at Scotland's first indoor beach.

Photo-Me International Plc is the world leader in the operation of photobooths.

? Basingstoke

PRUPIM has appointed NICK EARLY as the commercialisation director in its asset management team. He joins PRUPIM after having worked for two and a half years at DX3, a digital music technology company, and prior to that three and a half years at Carphone Warehouse.

Seeing as we haven't yet opted for a Scandinavian-style bicycling royalty, our royals don't get to see the inside of shopping centres very often, but in May and June three of them visited our newest and biggest malls.

At the end of May the cast and crew of BAFTA award-winning programme Spooks flocked down to the Surrey Quays shopping centre to film episode six of a new series. The well known and popular BBC1 drama is based around the shadowy world of MI5 and spies.

An unusual pet bakery business has been selected as Britain's best new retail concept in the Make Your Mark competition sponsored by The Mall and RBS.

DTZ director Eileen Connolly has won one of the shopping centre industry's highest honours - the ICSC's Trustees Distinguished Service Award.

Outlet operator McArthurGlen is taking a life-sized elephant sculpture on a 3,000km journey across the Alps to Italy, stopping off at six of its centres on the way.

Graeme Newman, managing director of Sovereign Land, passed away on Thursday 17 April 2008 at the Princess Alice Hospital in Esher.

I know it seems a long while ago now but, before Christmas, the pundits were all saying that the market downturn would continue into the spring, when values would bottom out before staging a modest recovery in the second half of 2008.

Entertainment retailer Zavvi is a new name on the UK high street, only emerging last year when Virgin Megastore's managing director Simon Douglas and finance director Steve Peckham took over the portfolio from Richard Branson in a management buyout.

Centre management teams are currently under pressure to create additional value in these difficult economic times. One way to do this is commercialisation, which has come to the fore at many client management meetings recently.

The tussle between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson to become Mayor of London may have been hogging the headlines, but London saw another important ballot this spring, with retailers in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street voting to renew the New West End Company's (NWEC) mandate to continue as the UK's biggest Business Improvement District.

? Bedminster

THE BENTALL CENTRE has appointed MARCUS MARCH as centre operations manager. He was previously operations and facilities manager for the Covent Garden Estate.

BCSC has awarded 29 Diplomas in Shopping Centre Management to the Class of 2007 at a ceremony held earlier this month at RIBA in London. The two-year course, run in association with the College of Estate Management at Reading University, has now seen 535 students successfully graduate since it started 20 years ago.

With the last crane finally removed from site at The Atrium in Camberley, Surrey last month, local dignitaries from across the region gathered at the scheme on April 30 to perform the official 'topping out' ceremony.

Land Securities' Princesshay in Exeter won the award for the best medium-sized new development at the ICSC European conference in Amsterdam last month.

I would like to use your letters column to pass on my gratitude to those people who contributed to the production of the Tenant Active System (TAS) launch video.

Three malls have opened in the past month in Ashford, High Wycombe and Cambridge with a combined floorspace of 1.6 million sq ft. With Belfast opening last month and Liverpool next month we're now in the middle of the busiest spate of centre openings the country has seen.

Founded 60 years ago by Rudolph Dassler, the brother of Adidas creator Adolph Dassler, Puma has a market capitalisation of over o4bn. It sponsors the football teams of Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland. And it sponsored most of the teams in this year's African Cup of Nations.

Well, the merry-go-round has well and truly ground to a halt, and at the risk of mixing my metaphors, if you're left holding the parcel it's always possible that in reality you can't implement the asset plan that was relying on yields coming in further.

? Accrington

As part of its programme of investment and expansion at Motherwell's Brandon shopping centre, CALA PROPERTIES has appointed a full-time centre manager. CLAIRE JEFCOATE has moved from Rutherglen shopping centre in Glasgow to become the centre's first permanent, full-time manager for a number of years.

A Scottish national newspaper adopted Braehead shopping centre's annual spoof as it's April Fool story this year.

Ray Hoof, manager of the Telford shopping centre since it opened in 1973, and a key member of the BCSC West Midlands region, recently retired.

Spare a thought for Sue Haslam, director in the facilities and property management department at Legat Owen, as she sets out on the voyage of a lifetime from Santa Cruz in California.

The hit Channel 4 show, How To Look Good Naked, has moved to Bluewater from The Trafford Centre, where the first series was filmed. The North Kent mall has been chosen as the new location for the final catwalk element of the show.

Meadowhall has become the first UK shopping centre to offer its customers free electric car charging points.

Scottish retailer Bite is embarking on plans to expand south of the border, having established itself as a recognised brand in the active sports sector in Scotland.

I recently spent a day listening to a series of presentations at a Market Research Society seminar, 'The Future of Geodemographics'. Those who read this column will doubtless recall me banging on about this subject. To recap, our thesis is that a shopping centre's catchment is inherently unstable and that a significant amount of a marketer's energy and resources should be devoted to sustaining or improving the number of shoppers using the centre. The effectiveness of the marketing strategy to achieve this will be determined by the depth of understanding of the target shoppers.

The South-West has a long and established tradition of taking pride in its local produce. Home of the Soil Association and instrumental in the growth of the organic food movement, the combination of rich arable land and fruits of the sea gives these counties a distinct head start in the rich pickings from their market gardens.

This year's Shopping Centre Managers' conference seemed better than ever, and it has benefited from the move to the ever-expanding Manchester Central venue.

The new BCSC president, Martyn Chase, has taken over an organisation which finds itself at something of a crossroads. Externally, the shopping centre industry will deliver more new space than ever before this year - 14 schemes spread across the country are due for completion with a combined value of more than £4bn, but this coincides with a challenging investment and occupational market. Internally the BCSC's 25th anniversary is provoking a degree of soul-searching about the way forward.

? Bristol

PAPA JOHN'S has appointed ALAN MASON as director of property. He has previously held senior roles with a number of high-profile companies including: Rileys, Pizza Hut, Luminar Leisure and Allied Domecq.

Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley made his first public appearance following his resignation this month at the launch of Victoria Square, Belfast.

Blueprint Projects, in conjunction with Shopping Centre, gave one lucky centre the chance to win a retail merchandise unit (RMU) with free delivery and installation for a year - a prize worth around £8,000. And the lucky winner, announced at the BCSC shopping centre management conference in Manchester earlier this month, is Suzanne Green, centre manager of the Corner House leisure and entertainment complex in Nottingham.

The January edition of Shopping Centre carried a letter from Ian Waterman expressing his delight at seeing that Princesshay had won the BCSC Supreme Gold Medal at the awards ceremony in December. He then went on to say that the complex is "renowned for having problems with its lifts, with stores experiencing regular breakdowns". I am not sure quite how Mr Waterman reaches a view that Princesshay is renowned in this respect, but as somebody who has lived with the development and implementation of the scheme over the last decade, I can honestly say that the many comments, emails, letters and visitor feedback that we have had have been virtually unanimously glowing about the scheme and the way it works.

News that British Land has had to knock another £80m off the value of its Meadowhall regional mall in the final quarter of the year was not unexpected. And indeed some might have expected the valuers to be even more pessimistic.

Food retailer Netto might be well established in the UK, having first opened its doors in 1990 and grown to 180 stores, but this is not stopping the company from undergoing a radical overhaul that will see it move away from its 'hard discounter' purely price-led positioning to that of a more mainstream supermarket.

Shopping centre values have fallen as the investment market comes to terms with the credit crunch. From now on performance will be largely driven by income growth, and managers will have to show their true worth to maximise the asset. So, how does a management team help to create value when there is a downturn in the market?

? Bolton

HENDERSON GLOBAL INVESTORS has appointed ALICE BREHENY as head of property research following Patrick Bushnell's decision to retire and take on a non-executive role for the business.

Ocean Terminal at Leith has become the first Scottish shopping centre to house an indoor urban skatepark. Transgression Park - run by the Scottish extreme sports company, EHX - is bringing the shopping centre alive with action as novices and enthusiasts alike practise skateboarding, rollerblading, BMX, break dancing and tricking.

Unfit gamers in East Kilbride are taking advantage of a unique new temporary service at Scotland's largest undercover shopping centre. Following reports of pulled muscles and aching joints as a result of playing Nintendo's hugely popular interactive Wii console, East Kilbride shopping centre has teamed up with a leading EK masseuse to launch the country's first Wii clinic.

Sutton's St Nicholas Centre hosted over 1,200 eager school pupils for the Bike FX competition at the end of January.

Branding is an integral ethos not a cosmetic fix

Before M&S chief executive Stuart Rose could even drop into Buckingham Palace to be dubbed Sir Stuart, the gloss has come off his much-hailed revival of the company. After a bruising Christmas the share price has dipped back below the 400p per share that Sir Philip Green was willing to bid four years ago.

The panel was hosted by Old Mutual directors Ian Watt and Ben Kodisang, and the discussion was opened by Watt. "Should shopping centres play a role in their local communities?" he asked. "In the end we're creating spaces for people to use."

? durham

CHESTER PROPERTIES has appointed KATE METHUEN as marketing manager at Festival Park, Ebbw Vale. She has 10 years' marketing experience with Bass, Mitchells & Butlers, Mars and Britvic Soft Drinks.

The Bentall Centre in Kingston is the unexpected setting for the first exciting episode of the new series of ITV's hit sci-fi show, Primeval, which was broadcast on Saturday, January 12.

Edinburgh charity Streetwork has appointed Land Securities' UK head of retail operations, Nick Peel, to its board to help develop commercial opportunities.

Phil Corrigan, formerly of the Maltings St Albans, has been seconded by EFM Facilities to Skarholmen in Stockholm, one of the 10 Stockholm centres purchased by its client, Boultbee, in September this year.

Land Securities' Princesshay was the worthy winner of the supreme award at this year's BCSC Golds. Neil Varnham, chairman of the awards jury, rightly pointed out that the scheme ticks all the boxes of the government's urban agenda: it incorporates residential and leisure alongside the retail and it has opened up new public spaces in the heart of a historic city.

I was interested to read your Viewpoint in the November edition of Shopping Centre in the wake of our record-setting BCSC Conference & Showcase. It raised important points regarding how BCSC - or indeed anyone organising a major industry conference and exhibition - can meet the dual-track requirements for delegates: the need to debate new thinking and the imperative to do business.

Burton-on-Trent is set for major change in the next two decades with plans by the council to regenerate the town centre.

? Antrim

GARETH WILLIAMS and LIZ REEVES have recently joined CLUTTONS' planning and regeneration team. Williams, who previously worked at White Young Green Planning and Portsmouth City Council, joins the team in Romsey as an associate. Reeves has been appointed graduate planner, having recently completed her studies at University College London.

According to the latest retail sales monitor from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG, UK retail sales rose 1.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis in November, compared with the previous November when sales were up only 0.5 per cent. November's growth is just above October's 1.0 per cent but well below the average for both 2006 and 2007 to date.

The expected flood to the high street this week has been more of a washout for retailers, as the year-on-year fall in shopper numbers continue to plummet, according to Experian's FootFall division. Although showing a week-on-week increase of 5.6 per cent, the FootFall index for the week commencing 26 November recorded a dismal decrease of 3.5 per cent on the same spending period last year, as Christmas shopping figures continue to trail those of 2006.

Princesshay, Land Securities' new shopping centre in Exeter has won the BCSC's Supreme Gold award for 2007. A delighted Peter Cleary, Land Secs' head of retail development, accepted the award at the annual BCSC dinner at London's Grosvenor House.

Liverpool's credentials as one of the UK's fashion capitals were underlined when Warner Estate hosted a fashion show featuring the work of Vivienne Westwood, Britain's most famous designer, at its Cavern Walks Boutique Emporium in the city centre.

Coopers Square in Burton-on-Trent is the first shopping centre to have its own wood. The dedicated area, named as the Coopers Square Wood, is near the Conkers Visitor Centre in Moira, Derbyshire.

A new glazed bridge has been installed in an overnight operation to cross Barton Dock Road in Trafford, connecting The Trafford Centre to its new Barton Square development.

Gift cards were first pioneered here in the UK in 2005

We have long been saying that foodservice can be leisure in its own right. While people are sceptical about this in the UK, they are much less so in Europe, and EPD has created a fabulous new facility in the centre of Prague, which opened its doors to the public at 10.00pm on Thursday 23 October. The centre combines an old barracks and stables building, retaining original facades, with a strikingly modern interior set over five floors.

The BCSC's annual shindig on the banks of the Tyne was bigger than ever with 3,300 delegates in attendance. Fine weather always helps, but Newcastle and Gateshead proved to be an attractive conference venue.

Mobile phone operator 3 will shortly begin the roll out of a newly designed store that aims to attract female shoppers and to appeal to shopping centre managers as well.

There are now less than six months to go until the official deadline of 6 April 2008 when Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are required on the sale or letting of all commercial buildings of more than 10,000 sq m. From July 2008 EPCs will be needed for all buildings over 2,500 sq m and from 1 October 2008 all commercial property will require an EPC. From a property investor's perspective the timing could not be worse as we all try to get to grips with the recent slowdown in the market.

KLM managing director Howard Morgan welcomed the expert panel, and began by asking: "Is property management more important in mixed-use projects than in single-use schemes?"

? Bangor

LVAM has appointed HOWARD MEANEY as the new head of property investment. He will manage the new LV= UK property fund as well as the group's other property investments, which currently total £800m in assets. He joins from Cushman & Wakefield, where he was a partner in the property investment management team.

Regeneration projects in Hebden Bridge, Luton and Redruth have won the BCSC's Gold Standard awards for Town Centre Environment. The awards, which were presented at the Gateshead conference, recognise work undertaken in towns and cities across the UK to improve the urban environment and encourage retail investment.

Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes and thecentre:mk joined forces on October 12 and 13 to host and part fund a massive free public event on a scale never seen in the town before. The 'Light Fantastic' event drove a significant increase in footfall with the busiest Friday and Saturday recorded in 2007 to date.

BCSC marked the opening off its 2007 conference and retail showcase in Gateshead by presenting cheques for £12,500 each to two charities. Representatives from WaterAid and CLIC Sargent were both presented cheques by Alan Shearer, the former England and Newcastle football star, and BCSC chief executive Michael Green.

UK shopping centres were at the forefront when the Maxi Marketing Awards were handed out at the ICSC's recently-held fall convention in New Orleans. The international Maxi Awards recognise the best marketing campaigns from around the world, and five British shopping centres came home bearing trophies.

UK retail sales in September were up 3.0 per cent on a like-for-like basis, compared with September 2006, according to the latest Retail Sales Monitor from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG.

Westfield arrived in the UK at the tail end of the last decade. Although Lend Lease had set new standards at Bluewater, the arrival of another Australian shopping centre owner was met with a degree of cynicism.

Fashion jewellery retailer Swarovski is a familiar name in many of the country's premier shopping centres, and with further store openings expected over the next few years it's certainly a company to watch out for.

I am spending a fair amount of time travelling around Europe overseeing three schemes in Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The more I travel the more I appreciate just how valuable good service is.

There's no doubt that global credit crunch has hit the shopping centre investment market hard. For many purchasers it was the ready availability of debt finance that oiled the wheels of the investment merry-go-round. Without that essential lubricant the ride has come to a juddering halt.

More than 3,000 delegates are expected to congregate next month in Gateshead for the UK shopping centre industry's biggest event - the annual BCSC Conference & Showcase.

Alongside the Conference BCSC will once again host the popular Showcase exhibition. This year's Showcase, which was more than 90 per cent sold out in early October, will host more than 90 retailers, owners, developers, agents, advisers, consultants and other exhibiting groups.

On the opening day of the BCSC conference, delegates will have the opportunity to take a guided tour of Newcastle city centre, one of the UK's most vibrant retail destinations.

Focal point of the BCSC's Gateshead study tour will be a visit to Capital Shopping Centres' MetroCentre. At 1.8 million sq ft the MetroCentre, which originally opened in 1986, is the UK's top-ranked regional shopping centre and is Europe's largest covered retail and leisure destination. And as the centre celebrates its 21st birthday CSC has unveiled ambitious plans to refresh the offer with the refurbishment and extension of the centre's Yellow Mall.

? BARNSLEY

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD has made JOHN MENZIES, formerly head of retail for Donaldsons in Scotland, a partner. C&W holds instructions to handle the St James shopping centre in Edinburgh, the St Enoch centre in Glasgow and 12 other shopping centres in Scotland.

Manchester's fashionistas flocked to the Triangle shopping centre last month to watch the final of North West Young Designer of the Year.

Talkback Thames has started recording ITV1's All Star Family Fortunes, which is being sponsored by The Mall. The sponsorship deal will put The Mall brand in front of millions of prime-time viewers, and will include events in all of its properties nationwide.

Centre owners like to portray their malls as havens of peace and quiet, but Zurich Assurance's Piazza shopping centre in Huddersfield became the unlikely venue for the first ever UK theatre production of Fight Club.

Leisure agents Shelley Sandzer managed to create the perfect recipe of work, pleasure and charity by hosting a special advance screening of the forthcoming Disney Pixar Film Ratatouille at the Apollo West End Cinema.

As the consultation closes on the Draft Local Transport Bill we are calling on Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly not to relinquish the power to approve how revenue from local road-user charging is spent. We fear that, without that safeguard, local authorities will exploit charging schemes as a general revenue raiser.

Last week the Bloomberg newswire carried a story forecasting that commercial real estate prices in the USA would fall by 10 to 15 per cent over the next two years because of the credit crunch, quoting authoritative sources like the investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Specialist health products retailer Holland & Barrett is expanding its business in the UK and overseas, including taking on markets where other retailers have failed.

I've written many times that the essence of marketing is to create and retain customers profitably.

According to the BRC/KPMG retail sales monitor, UK retail sales in August were up 1.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared with August 2006. The three-month trend rate of growth was unchanged from July, at 2.1 per cent for like-for-like sales, and slipped to 4.0 per cent from 4.1 per cent for total sales, reflecting the continuing growth of retail space.

Nigel Brown runs a global property empire from an impressive office overlooking the Thames on London's South Bank. It forms part of St Martins' massive London Bridge City (LBC) complex, which pioneered corporate office development on the South Bank. Now it's a highly fashionable location but when LBC was built 20 years ago it was seen as a bold move.

? BALLYMENA

PETER FRAUNHOFFER has joined CBRE in a newly-created role of head of retail for CEE. He has spent the last 11 years looking after the CEE region for German shoe retailer, Deichmann. And SVEN BUCHSTEINER joins CBRE Germany from DTZ as head of retail research.

Camille Waxer, head of retail at Canary Wharf Group, has won the prestigious 2007 Harper's Bazaar & Aquascutum Businesswoman of the Year award. This is the fifth year the awards have taken place and the first time they have been sponsored by British luxury fashion brand Aquascutum.

Shoppers visiting Glasgow's St Enoch Centre, the official fashion sponsor of the Breast Cancer Care Scotland Fashion Show, saw pink last month as builders working on the site's £100m transformation donned bright pink hard hats to show their support for the charity.

Staff from British Land's Eastgate shopping centre in Basildon demonstrated their physical and mental endurance skills by completing a charity bikeathon to support the Touching Tiny Minds Appeal on behalf of Action Medical Research.

Westfield shopping centres are stocking a limited edition shopping bag inspired by the NSPCC's FULL STOP logo, to launch the company's £50,000 fundraising partnership with the leading children's charity.

It feels like I am the only person in the world not going away for a summer holiday this year, having taken mine in the depths of winter. But while our esteemed editor enjoys the sun in Corsica, I caught the train on a rather rainy day to visit Cardiff.

Retail property body BCSC has just completed the industry's most in-depth research programme to date: 'The Future of Retail Property'.

British Land's 1.2 million-sq ft Meadowhall shopping complex and the Magna attraction are only about a mile apart, on opposite sides of the M1 motorway. But their managers - Mohammed Dajani and Matthew Beck - had never met before we asked them to swap jobs for a day.

? BARNSLEY

HAMMOND PHILLIPS has made two new appointments in its asset management team. SARAH MILNE-DAY joins from Scurr & Partners as property manager. And MANNY ELMAN, formally financial controller at Cluttons, has joined in the newly-created position of head of management accounts.

UK retail sales were up by 1.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis, compared with July 2006, while the three-month trend rate of growth fell to 2.1 per cent from 2.5 per cent in June, for like-for-like sales, and to 4.1 per cent from 4.6 per cent for total sales, reflecting the continuing growth of retail space.

July saw the Retail FootFall Index (RFI) hit the highest level so far in 2007, as summer rain drove consumers away from the seaside and into shopping centres.

Being 'shipwrecked' in a shopping centre may sound like a dream to most women, but five shoppers at MetroCentre endured a gruelling five days and four nights on the Gateshead centre's very own desert island in a bid to win the holiday of a lifetime.

All aboard! A special collaboration between Chapelfield in Norwich and 'one' railway was celebrated recently with the launch of a unique, 'wrapped' train.

Real estate firm John Arkwright & Co donned their walking boots and put their best feet forward in the Red Cross Three Peaks Challenge last month, winning the 'Top Fundraising Team' award and helping to raise a massive estimated total of £100,000.

Fay Jameson, marketing manager at Ocean Terminal, took a well-earned rest alongside America's most famous family when they visited the Edinburgh mall.

BCSC's Summer Reception, held recently at the Wallace Collection in London, came a day after BCSC launched 'Shopping Places for People' - its view on the future of retail property over the next 10 years. Pictured at the event (l to r) Stuart Rose, chief executive of M&S; Michael Green, chief executive of BCSC; Maddie Strachan; and past BCSC presidents John Strachan, global head of retail at Cushman Wakefield, and Andrew Ogg, managing director of architects Leslie Jones.

Meadowhall shopping centre remains partially closed more than a fortnight after the catastrophic flooding that hit Sheffield on Monday June 25. The upper malls reopened on Monday July 2 after losing six days' trade but other parts of the centre remain closed.

It's that time in the cycle when if in doubt companies buy themselves out, or sell themselves on or look to make one and one equal three! Of course there is no market without two parties thinking the opposite thing, and that depends on perception.

An open letter to the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities

The wave of mergers & acqusitions in the surveying business shows no sign of abating with a management buyout at Lambert Smith Hampton and the potential takeover of Donaldsons by DTZ.

? Chorley

The EFM FACILITIES team in London has expanded with the appointment of RICHARD CASTILLO as head of IT to bolster the group's support services. He joins EFM Facilities from ITD UK and brings with him 10 years of IT experience including operational support and training skills.

Over 200 children from seven Edinburgh primary schools flocked to the Gyle shopping centre recently to discover all there is to know about wild birds.

More than 100 retail destination and shopping centre executives from the North of England took part in the annual BCSC Northern Region Conference at the De Vere Oulton Hall near Leeds in early June.

The BBC's Politics Show sent its cameras to Maidstone retail centre Fremlin Walk this month, where the programme makers recorded footage for a TV debate on the increased use of CCTV.

Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres kicked off the marketing for their million-sq ft St David's 2 project in Cardiff with a Welsh-themed event at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Cushman & Wakefield's stable of shopping centres has adopted the Retail Trust as their charity of choice, and they're doing their bit to celebrate the retail industry's charity's 175th birthday.

BEcause Experiential Marketing was the winner in the Mall promotion category, sponsored by Promotion Space.

Winner of the Young Achiever SCEPTRE Award, sponsored by Insitu Services, was Carly North from lakeside, Thurrock

The SCEPTRE Award for Short Term Merchant of the Year, sponsored by Retail Profile Europe, went to The Red Image.

This year's SCEPTRE Retailer of the Year, sponsored by Land Securities, is the John Lewis Partnership.

Sheffield's Meadowhall Centre won the new SCEPTRE Award for Environmental Management, sponsored by Envirowise, for its handling of shopfit waste.

Karen Car, marketing manager at the MetroCentre in Gateshead, was the winner of this year's SCEPTRE Marketing manager of the Year Award, sponsored by LDJ Design & Display.

Mo Aswat, executive director of Bedford's Business Improvement District, won teh SCEPTRE Award for town centre manager of the year, sponsored by SGP Property Services.

Festival Place in basingstoke was the winner of the SCEPTRE Award for Customer Services Team of the Year.

Shopping Centre Ireland's readers voted Ballymore as their developer of the year at this year's SCEPTRE Awards.

Bannon Commercial was voted All Ireland property Agent of the Year by the readers of Shopping Centre Ireland.

Dundrum's Don Nugent emerged as the SCEPTRE Awards All Ireland Shopping Centre Manager of the Year, following a poll of Shopping Centre Ireland's readers.

Jane McLeod, manager of Realm's Atlantic Village in Bideford, North Devon, was the winner of the SCEPTRE Award for best manager of a small shopping centre.